Remembrance Events

Hilton Hall Heritage Centre provides the venue for the annual Remembrance Event by The History Guy. Each year around the time of Remembrance Day in early November, one or two stories related to war and remembrance are presented to appreciative audiences in our favourite comfortable hall. Here are the topics of past Remembrance Events.

2017: VIMY - The Battle and the Memorial​In 2017 Canadians celebrated not only Canada 150 but also the centennial of the Battle of Vimy Ridge. This 2-hour presentation was based on material from four books: 1) Vimy by Pierre Berton; 2) Victory at Vimy by Ted Barris; 3) Vimy, the Battle and the Legend, by Tim Cook; 4) Letters To Vimy by Orland French. The first part focussed on the battle, its origins, the politics, the planning, the organization and in particular, the role of the Canadians. The second part concentrated on the Vimy Memorial, the struggle to get it built and what it means to Canadians today. A special guest, Bob Vear, told if his experiences at the centennial celebrations at Vimy Ridge earlier in the year, bringing an important event in Canadian history into our daily lives today.

2016: Dancing in the Sky and They Went TogetherTwo remembrance stories were presented on November 6, 2016 at Hilton Hall Heritage Centre. In the first hour, The History Guy presented Dancing in the Sky, from a book of the same name by C. W. "Bill" Hunt. This is the story of the training program of the Imperial Royal Flying Corp in Canada in the later years of the Great War. Many young Canadian men died in crashes before they learned how to handle their primitive aircraft. Airfields were set up around Ontario, the closest one in Deseronto, and in the end the trained pilots made a difference in the war in France.​They Went Together is the story of two Brighton chums who enlisted early in the Great War and were shipped to France to fight in the deadly trenches of Belgium and France. Both Keith Roblin and Bill Nesbitt were luckier than many others because they received wounds that brought them back home to Brighton. Written by John Stephens of Brighton, a relative of Keith Roblin, They Went Together follows the two men on their journey through the war and provides the context of larger events that impacted where and how they would fight.

2015: Without a Trace & Veterans of the Battle of the AtlanticWithout a Trace is the story of Donald Goodfellow, a relative of The History Guy, as he enlisted in the RCAF early in WWII and ended up as a bomb aimer in a Halifax bomber. On his 13th mission, Donald Goodfellow's Halifax took off on the second-last raid of the Battle of Berlin and was never heard of again. No trace of the aircraft or the dozen men onboard was ever found or reported, which was quite unusual, even in the violent and brutal world of bomber command. The History Guy traces path of his cousin from a farm at Mount Olivet to the nose of a Halifax bomber on that fateful night and provides the best information we have about what might have happened that night. This is a unique war story with no good ending. Veterans of the Battle of the Atlantic was presented by Roger Litwiller, author of several books about the Canadian navy including White Ensign Flying and Warships of the Bay of Quinte. Roger provided fascinating stories about the crew of HMCS Trentonian, including its sinking and the loss of many brace men. We hear the story of Roger's search for survivors and the reunion of veterans who serviced on Trenton's favourite ship.

2014: They Went TogetherA full 2-hour program of Great War tribute and music was presented at Hilton Hall Heritage Centre on February 15 and 16, 2014, to appreciative audiences. Ian and Sharon Graham provided delightful musical interludes of World War I music while The History Guy presented the gripping story of two Brighton recruits who went to war together. Both experienced the horrors of war before receiving wounds that ended their days in the trenches and brought them back home to Brighton. The story was based on a document created by John Stephens of Brighton, who wrote about Bill Nesbitt and Keith Roblin as they managed to survive The Great War. The serious nature of the story was balanced by the fun of singing along to the familiar old WWI songs. Everyone was amazed by how much the members of the audience seemed to know the words.